


Like the Sweet Apple

by Draco_sollicitus



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Bisexual Finn, Crushes, F/F, First Kiss, Fluff, One-Shot, Past Rose/Finn, Post-TLJ, Rey has a crush and doesn't realize it, bisexual rey, canonverse, minor stormpilot, very soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-28
Updated: 2019-10-28
Packaged: 2021-01-05 02:29:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21205970
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Draco_sollicitus/pseuds/Draco_sollicitus
Summary: Rey knows that Rose Tico is pretty. Of course she's pretty. Everyone thinks Rose is pretty. And, Rey figures she only noticed because Rose is with Finn, and Rey had a crush on Finn once, and she clearly noticed that Rose was pretty because of that. Yep.(a short fic where Rey realizes that she likes girls, too, but mainly, she likes Rose Tico)





	Like the Sweet Apple

**Author's Note:**

  * For [aimmyarrowshigh](https://archiveofourown.org/users/aimmyarrowshigh/gifts).

> my first Rose/Rey fic! Dedicated to aimmyarrowshigh who mentioned recently that she wanted some more Rose Tico fluffy romance fics :)

Rey noticed the difference between herself and Rose very quickly.

It was on the Falcon, after she’d finally woken up, that Rose looked over at her and smiled, her dimpled cheeks round and soft and _ pretty. _Rey looked at her once, one time, and knew that Rose Tico was pretty, and that she was the kind of pretty that felt soft.

Rey was not soft. She’d grown up on Jakku after all, trapped in the desert with its coarse sand and jagged edges, grown up like a weed, tall and thin, hardened for survival.

Rose Tico was soft. She’d grown up in difficulty as well, Rey learned in the following months, on a poor planet under the crushing boot of lingering oppression from the days of the Empire. Rose had lived a hard life too, and had suffered staggering losses, first when her parents were killed, when the First Order plundered the Otomok system, and then again when she’d lost her sister. But Rose Tico had grown up _ pretty, _with glowing eyes and soft skin and a sort of gentle beauty that wouldn’t have lasted on Jakku.

Finn liked Rose, Rey knew. Finn liked Rose the way she’d thought he might like her, and at first it hurt, it hurt deep in a place where she’d learned to be unsoft years ago, but after she’d watched them flirt and laugh in the mess of the ramshackle base, she decided it made sense. Rose was so pretty; she looked sweet and adorable under Finn’s arm when he slung it around her shoulders, and it wasn’t like Finn didn’t swing his arm around Rey’s shoulders, too. Finn was still her best friend, and Rose was so, so kind, and Rey, as she constantly watched Rose, recognized all the parts that made Rose pretty.

It was a habit she’d picked up while working for Plutt. Hold the parts of a ship in your head, note the parts worth the most, keep a running list of all the good junk. But Rose Tico wasn’t a ship. Wasn’t made of salvageable parts. Rey figured the skill of knowing all the things that made Rose pretty- eyes, cheeks, shoulders, slope of neck, dark hair, skin that was a different color to anything Rey had ever seen, a gorgeous tone that sang in the Force with a golden hue of rightness and something beyond prettiness- well, that skill had to come from being able to memorize the parts of a ship. Rey liked to know things, after all. She was curious. And this was the girl who had captured the attention of the first boy she’d ever _ liked. _ Finn was the first boy she’d ever had a crush on, to borrow a phrase from Poe Dameron, Poe Dameron who was pretty in a way different from Rose, different from Finn, a pretty that felt sharp and undeniable, a pretty that caught everyone’s eye. 

Rose’s pretty didn’t catch everyone’s eye. Rey realized this during a game of _ Kriff, Marry, Kill, _when a junior cadet, given the options of Rey, Rose, and Jess, had laughingly assigned kriff to Rey (she thought maybe she should blush, but didn’t feel the need), kill to Jess (for making the cadet stand on her head for an hour once as a prank, something that made Jess roar in laughter when she heard it across the room), and marry to Rose Tico. The cadet explained, awkwardly, that Rose seemed the nicest, even if she wasn’t necessarily ‘kriffable.’

_ Not - _Rey scoffed, loudly, and drew the attention of half the group. She put her fist to her chin and glowered at the torch in the middle of the circle and bit her tongue near in half. Not kriffable. As if anyone could look at Rose Tico, with the graceful slope of her neck and shoulder, with her soft hips and hands, with her sweet face and pretty laugh, and not think she was -

People were idiots, Rey decided.

Her biggest shock came five months after Crait, when she turned a corner and saw Finn kissing someone slightly shorter than himself, very passionately, hands fisted in a leather jacket.

Rey clapped a hand to her mouth when she saw that it was Poe Dameron.

“Finn!” She squeaked, and the men stumbled apart.

“Rey,” Finn smiled at her, not embarrassed at all. “Sorry, we uh, we couldn’t make it to the room, I guess.”

“What about-” Rey felt her mouth drop open, in anger and indignation and confusion and-

“What about…?” Finn waited patiently, and Poe wrapped his arm around Finn’s waist and huffed a nervous laugh. 

“You okay, Jedi?” He asked, looking oddly worried. “Do you- did uhm, men, did they, uh, date on Jakku?”

“What?” Rey frowned, not knowing why Poe asked it that way.

“Just, some systems, don’t like it when men…” Poe shot Finn an side-eyed look, truly concerned now, and Finn frowned back at him, and then over at Rey.

“Does it…” He cleared his throat. “Does it bother you, peanut?”

“Does it bother _ me _ ?” Rey asked, voice cracking. “Finn, what about _ Rose _?”

“Rose?” Finn thought for a second and then grinned. “Oh, Peanut, Rose dumped me like … a week after Crait."

“_Lucky for me,_” Poe added in a whisper, and Finn squeezed his side, making the pilot laugh.

Finn continued, "We fought too much, but we’re still really good friends.”

“Oh.” Rey blinked and nodded, her indignation fading away into something …. different. Not jealousy, though. She wasn’t jealous of Poe Dameron’s arm around Finn’s waist. No, her indignation at Rose’s behalf was cooling into something closer to relief. 

“So, are we okay?” Poe asked, and Rey could see the way his thumb stroked over Finn’s hipbone, a tender gesture that made her ache behind her breastbone as if she’d run up a dune with no water at midday. 

“Of course.” Rey fiddled with her staff and gestured vaguely down the hall. “You two should get back to it, I’m going to-”

Slightly embarrassed now- they were both her friends, and she’d basically accused them of infidelity- she scurried away, and could hear, with her Force-enhanced senses, Poe break into giggles immediately, and Finn muttering _ oh, shut it, flyboy, _before one of them kissed the other soundly.

Rey stumbled into the mechanics bay, her feet taking her without thought to her bird. It was a gorgeous, restored T-70 she’d been working on the last few months. She neared the X-Wing, her feet slowing, and she realized there was someone working on it already.

Rose emerged from under the belly of the T-70, a streak of grease across her pretty cheek, her hair slightly frazzled in the humidity, her coveralls bunched up endearingly around her waist, where she’d had to cinch it as much as possible. She dropped a hydrospanner into a toolbox and hummed to herself as she pulled out a welding tool, tapping it against her hand before twisting to examine the ship, frowning thoughtfully.

She was pretty, and Rey remembered this with that same ache behind her breastbone she’d just felt watching Poe and Finn. Rose looked so pretty, her hair a mess and grease on her face, her chest straining against the top of her coveralls and- 

Heat surged in Rey, something unlike any heat she’d ever felt. 

Rose turned and saw her standing there, watching her. “Hi!” She waved merrily and pointed at the ship. “I replaced the S-Foils on this heap; you mentioned the cannon was lagging on the last test run.”

“Thank you.” Rey walked forward, feeling strangely shy. “You didn’t have to do that.”

“Of course I did.” Rose smiled at her, and Rey waited for her to say _ it’s my job, _which it technically was and wasn’t, as Rose was the lead mechanic for the entire Resistance. “I can’t have you piloting a less than optimal X-Wing.”

“No?”

“No.” Rose twirled the welding tool, smiling up at Rey with a softness Rey still didn’t know how to handle. “We need you safe, Rey.”

“You do?” Rey blinked, thinking maybe it was the lingering humidity of the bay that was making her skin flush.

“We all do,” Rose nodded, “But I - I’d be happier if I knew you were safe.”

Rey smiled then, happiness bubbling out of the warm space in her stomach, the place that was warmer when she looked at Rose, and looked over at the T-70 so she wouldn’t just be staring at the pretty mechanic in front of her. “Could you show me the mods?” Rey asked, wanting to prolong the conversation somehow.

“Yes!” Rose took her hand, and electricity jolted through Rey as easily as if Rose had zapped her with a taser. “Come on, I’ll show you.”

Rey did not ask Rose to stop holding her hand, not even when they were under the X-Wing and looking up at the mods, and when she stroked her thumb over the back of Rose’s hand, the way she’d seen Poe rub Finn’s hipbone that afternoon, Rose didn’t pull away or ask her why.

“Do you-” Rose squeezed her hand when Rey didn’t turn away from the re-wired torpedo launchers in time. She looked down at Rose, who was so much shorter than she was, something that felt endearing, something that reminded her how precious Rose Tico was. “Do you want to get dinner together?”

“I’d like that,” Rey answered, grinning hard enough for her cheeks to hurt. Rose grinned too, and pulled her away from the X-Wing towards the hangar doors. 

At dinner, Rey looked up from her protein-mash and smiled at Rose, who was nestled into her side even though there was a whole bench across from them. They weren’t catching any odd glances from anyone- but Rey still felt like this was something private, something sweet she wanted to guard and keep close to her heart.

“Is this a date?” She asked suddenly. Poe had taught her the word, a few weeks ago when he asked her if she thought it was a good idea to take someone from the base on a date (and _ oh, he was asking about _ Finn, _ and that made so much sense now _). 

“Yep.” Rose smiled at her, tilting her face up and butting her chin against Rey’s arm. “If that’s okay.”

“More than.” Rey smiled at her protein mash and then leaned into Rose; on some random instinct she didn’t know she possessed, she darted in and kissed the top of Rose’s head. 

“You missed,” Rose said sternly, and Rey fiddled with her fork before dropping it with a clatter to her tray. She turned in the bench fully and placed her hand on Rose’s cheek, marveling at how soft she was under her calloused hands, and wiped the grease, the streak she’d noticed earlier, free of Rose’s skin before fitting their mouths together.

If looking at Rose Tico felt warm, kissing her was the sun. Rey wasn’t sure how she stopped, but she did, and she pulled away, her toes curling in her boots with a feeling of triumph.

“Wow.” Rose sighed and squirmed slightly, wiggling into Rey’s side. Rey wrapped her arm around Rose’s shoulder, glad to have learned that technique from watching other people. “Let’s do that again sometime.”

“Let’s,” Rey agreed, and made good on that promise less than thirty seconds later. 

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading xox


End file.
